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Ill Teenager Tasered At Concert
An Alabama woman is suing Rainbow City, Ala., police for using a stun gun multiple times on her teenage daughter who was suffering seizures at a hip-hop concert Jan. 16.
The lawsuit filed July 9 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama also accuses police of using the stun gun on the girl’s mother after she arrived at the Kevin Gates concert held at
Also named in the suit are three officers from nearby Gadsden, Rainbow City Police Chief Greg Carroll and Center Stage.
“A Taser was used three times on a child’s chest, during a medical emergency, while she was pinned to the ground by officers,” said Gregory Harp, attorney for the plaintiffs. “Other officers present at the scene failed to intervene. Her mother was knocked to the ground, handcuffed, and then she herself Tased and arrested.”
The woman and her daughter are seeking damages for pain, emotional distress, medical expenses, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
According to the suit, after the concert began at 8 p.m., a performer at one point left the stage and went into the crowd, causing a stampede that knocked the girl to the floor. Other concertgoers “trampled” her, triggering a grand mal seizure. When the crowd parted around the teenager her younger sister told Center Stage employees that the girl was having a seizure. An employee picked up the teen and moved her to the lobby, where she was allegedly dumped onto the floor and held with a chokehold, the Media Group said.
The suit further claims that once the mother heard about her daughter’s condition from the sister, she went to the venue to help. Upon arrival she was allegedly held down on the ground and restrained by police, who then fired the Taser at her.
Police allegedly used the Taser three times on the teenager, who was “face down with her arms secured behind her,” the suit states. The teen temporarily lost consciousness and was taken to a nearby hospital, while the mother was arrested for disorderly conduct. “The actions of the …defendants …were unjustified, unprovoked, and objectively unreasonable and constitute a violation of their rights under the Fourth Amendment and/or the Fourteenth Amendment to be free from the use of excessive force,” the suit states. Rainbow City Attorney Jim Turnbach told the Media Group he had not seen the lawsuit, but said it would be “vigorously defended.”